Podcasts

As the country heads into the second Christmas since the economic downturn, Rev. Larry Snyder, the president of Catholic Charities, details the needs his organization is encountering around the country. In shelters and food pantries, the organization is seeing a dramatic increase in demand. Father Snyder also discusses the recent controversy in Washington, D.C., concerning […]

Thoma Massaro, S.J., a respected social ethicist at Boston College, reviews Michael Sandel’s PBS series, “Justice: What’s the Right Thing To Do?” based on the Harvard professor’s popular course. The 12 episode series can be viewed online at www.justiceharvard.org”. Read Father Massaro’s written review of the show here.

An interview with Rev. Michael G. Ryan, a priest from the Archdiocese of Seattle who is calling for a grass-roots review of the new Roman Missal.

Amy Uelmen talks about the contributions of the Focolare movement to Pope Benedict’s encyclical, Caritas in Veritate.

Jesuit priest Uwem Akpan published his first short story in the New Yorker in 2005 and his writing career has blossomed from there. His short story collection, Say You’re One of Them, is the most recent selection of Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club, and Father Akpan appeared with Ms. Winfrey on a live Webcast earlier this […]

Doris Gottemoeller, R.S.M., past president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, offers four recommendations for the Vatican visitation of women religious, and reflects on the opportunities and limitations such a process entails.

Kevin F. Burke, S.J., the author of two books on Ignacio Ellacuria, discusses the legacy of the Spanish Jesuit and the other victims of the massacre at the Central American University in El Salvador on Nov. 16, 1989. A total of eight people were killed on that day, which proved to be a turning point […]

William Bole offers a critique of the social conservative movement, arguing that too often their positions are indistinguishable from the platform of the Republican National Committee. This is unfortunate, Bole contends, because a truly independent social conservative movement could play a key role in implementing policies designed to strengthen the family.

Associate editor Kevin Clarke interviews John Donaghy, a lay missionary from Honduras, on the country’s political crisis in wake of the ouster of Manuel Zelaya on June 28. Donaghy assesses the church’s response to what some have called a coup d’etat, and what impact the political strife will have on the country’s poor.